Kershaw Camp 18 fail.

M

Mrknot

Joined
Aug 15, 2013
Messages
204
Bought the Kershaw Camp 18 about 6 months ago. Been using it for mostly light-duty grass/weed control and the like.
About a week ago I decided to really put it through its paces and clear out a blackberry and holly infested part of our "back 40".
Made it most of the way though, whacking and chopping through the bushes and up to 1" thick branches, when on a down-swing the tip contacted a hidden cinder block.
This is the result:

Ouch!

As luck would have it, I live about 10 miles from the Kershaw-Kai-ZT factory so I ran it in there this morning.
The guy behind the counter was shocked. He asked me how it had happened, was I batoning with it or trying to chop through a log?
"Nope" I said, "just blackberries and holly."
"Well, OK then, we don't have one here, so give me your address and we'll ship you a new one."

Great service, but I am left a little skeptical about the quality of this product.
I've had the Camp 10 since they first came out. I've batoned, chopped and used the stuffin's out of it with nary a problem. My hope is that this was just a fluke manufacturers defect and the replacement will be considerably more durable.
Anyone else have any experience with this line of Kershaw products?
Any input or observations?
What happened to the Kershaw/Kai manufacturers forum BTW?
 
Mrknot said:
As luck would have it, I live about 10 miles from the Kershaw-Kai-ZT factory so I ran it in there this morning.
The guy behind the counter was shocked. He asked me how it had happened, was I batoning with it or trying to chop through a log?
"Nope" I said, "just blackberries and holly."
Click to expand...

And a cinder block.
 
I have never had one, but I hope you'll put the new one through similar paces and tell us the results. Best of luck and glad they are taking care of it.

Edit: Missed the part about it hitting a cinder block... I would think that's not a far-fetched result of that. Just my two cents.
 
marcinek said:
Well sure..if you can't chop a cinder block with it, what good is it? :D
Click to expand...

This is actually my motto for most things in life, oddly enough.

I go through life being phenomenally disappointed most days to be honest.
 
This is what I always imagined happening when I looked at the Camp 18.
that's why I went with a Camp 10. And later, a GSO-10 :D
 
Wait... the tip contacted the cinder block but the blade fractured at the sweet-spot...? Is that right?

Can we see the metal at the fracture? Any sign of rust or an obvious inclusion? 5mm thick spring steel... I'd've expected it to take a bend prior to fracture of that magnitude...
 
I have one myself and I cut down a dead tree around 8" in diameter and 20' tall in my yard with it this weekend and cut it up into 3 sections and the blade came through fine with no edge roll or chipping, really no damage at all other than some minor finish loss. I did this just to test the blade and it did fine and I purposely tried to beat the crap out of it and the wood on this dead tree was very hard.. Seams the overall quality is hit and miss with these but i got a good one I think (hope). Zombie heads have been no problem either:)
 
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marcinek said:
Well sure..if you can't chop a cinder block with it, what good is it? :D
Click to expand...

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a product meant for use in the outdoors to be able to withstand a little use/abuse.
I did not intentionally baton a cinder block, but rather made incidental contact within the last inch or so of the blade.
In nature there are these things called "rocks" which are much harder than cinder blocks, and as much as one may try and avoid contact with them, it is bound to happen from time to time.
I have done similar things over the years with Ontarios, Cold Steels, Tramontinas, etc without experiencing the catastrophic failure that I did with the Kershaw. Chipped, rolled edges?, sure. But never total failure. I was honest with the guy at Kershaw, and even he agreed that it should not have happened.
He said the most common damage from something like that was a half-moon chunk chipped out of the edge.
 
chiral.grolim said:
Wait... the tip contacted the cinder block but the blade fractured at the sweet-spot...? Is that right?

Can we see the metal at the fracture? Any sign of rust or an obvious inclusion? 5mm thick spring steel... I'd've expected it to take a bend prior to fracture of that magnitude...
Click to expand...
Unfortunately the guy at Kershaw took the broken blade for testing and I didn't take any closer, more detailed pics.
I had kind of wanted to hang on to the lower half as I could've modded it into a pretty cool, albeit much smaller knife.
No visible rust or inclusions before the accident. As I had said, it was only about 6 months old and hadn't seen much if any hard use prior to the "incident"
 
Mrknot said:
I had kind of wanted to hang on to the lower half as I could've modded it into a pretty cool, albeit much smaller knife.
Click to expand...

Yep, I did that to an old sword-style bayonet that busted.
It still worked pretty good, albeit for different tasks.
 
It amazes me that you smacktalked a product, after lying to the manufacturer in order to snag a new one after it broke during your careless use. Wow.

Mrknot said:
Unfortunately the guy at Kershaw took the broken blade for testing and I didn't take any closer, more detailed pics.
I had kind of wanted to hang on to the lower half as I could've modded it into a pretty cool, albeit much smaller knife.
No visible rust or inclusions before the accident. As I had said, it was only about 6 months old and hadn't seen much if any hard use prior to the "incident"
Click to expand...

Well, you can always break your free new one and use that one to modify. :thumbup:
 
Quiet said:
It amazes me that you smacktalked a product, after lying to the manufacturer in order to snag a new one after it broke during your careless use. Wow.



Well, you can always break your free new one and use that one to modify. :thumbup:
Click to expand...
Did you actually read all my posts in this thread before you started flaming?
If you had you would have read that I was honest about what happened with the guy at Kershaw.
Wow!
Some peoples kids...

"Fixed blades for sale"?
Someone is never getting any of my business...
 
grownstar said:
I was waiting for this one, Legion!

And I think it's awesome that Kershaw's taking care of you. Man, if I lived that close I'd be there every other day haha.
Click to expand...
I try not to disappoint Sir but in all seriousness I tested it on a cinder block wall pic speaks for itself !
 
Mrknot said:
Did you actually read all my posts before you started flaming?
If you had you would have read that I was honest about what happened with the guy at Kershaw.
Wow!
Some peoples kids...
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, what was that? I read your post just fine:

Mrknot said:
As luck would have it, I live about 10 miles from the Kershaw-Kai-ZT factory so I ran it in there this morning.
The guy behind the counter was shocked. He asked me how it had happened, was I batoning with it or trying to chop through a log?
"Nope" I said, "just blackberries and holly."
"Well, OK then, we don't have one here, so give me your address and we'll ship you a new one."
Click to expand...

I missed the part where you disclosed to the Kershaw employee that you broke your Camp 18 due to carelessly swinging into some bushes and coming into contact with a cinder block. Frankly, if you expect an inexpensive $40 imported machete to be able to handle smashing into a cinder block without issue, that speaks to larger problems than lying by omission to companies in order so score a free replacement of an item you broke due to excessive abuse. Kershaw does not sell the Camp 18 for people to beat on rocks with it.

Some peoples' kids, indeed. :rolleyes:

Quoted for posterity:

Mrknot said:
Bought the Kershaw Camp 18 about 6 months ago. Been using it for mostly light-duty grass/weed control and the like.
About a week ago I decided to really put it through its paces and clear out a blackberry and holly infested part of our "back 40".
Made it most of the way though, whacking and chopping through the bushes and up to 1" thick branches, when on a down-swing the tip contacted a hidden cinder block.
This is the result:
(Broken blade pic here)
Ouch!

As luck would have it, I live about 10 miles from the Kershaw-Kai-ZT factory so I ran it in there this morning.
The guy behind the counter was shocked. He asked me how it had happened, was I batoning with it or trying to chop through a log?
"Nope" I said, "just blackberries and holly."
"Well, OK then, we don't have one here, so give me your address and we'll ship you a new one."

Great service, but I am left a little skeptical about the quality of this product.
I've had the Camp 10 since they first came out. I've batoned, chopped and used the stuffin's out of it with nary a problem. My hope is that this was just a fluke manufacturers defect and the replacement will be considerably more durable.
Anyone else have any experience with this line of Kershaw products?
Any input or observations?
What happened to the Kershaw/Kai manufacturers forum BTW?
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Mrknot said:
I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a product meant for use in the outdoors to be able to withstand a little use/abuse.
I did not intentionally baton a cinder block, but rather made incidental contact within the last inch or so of the blade.
In nature there are these things called "rocks" which are much harder than cinder blocks, and as much as one may try and avoid contact with them, it is bound to happen from time to time.
I have done similar things over the years with Ontarios, Cold Steels, Tramontinas, etc without experiencing the catastrophic failure that I did with the Kershaw. Chipped, rolled edges?, sure. But never total failure. I was honest with the guy at Kershaw, and even he agreed that it should not have happened.
He said the most common damage from something like that was a half-moon chunk chipped out of the edge.
Click to expand...

No you weren't if you said "just blackberries and holly." as you stated in your OP.
 
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